A dollop of reality in my cup of fiction

It’s funny. I have never been good at keeping a journal, and so this blog has been something of a stand-in for me. Now I can look back and be reminded of where I have been, and how little I have learned. I still need reminding of these things.

“Sir Arthur St. Clare, as I have already said, was a man who read his Bible. That was what was the matter with him. When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible …

18 responses to “A dollop of reality in my cup of fiction”

A good point well made. I think this is what Paul was getting at when he told the Ephesian church to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ. No getting all wound up in our own little interpretation and going off on our own, convinced of our own rightness.

It was quite a revelation to me, the first time I realized this. I am very much an introvert, and would much prefer to figure everything out on my own. But we’re not made for that, are we… there’s a balance that needs to be sought. Pity it’s not easy. ;)

It’s like you took the thoughts right out of my head! :D
Journaling is something I’ve always liked the idea of but struggled to really follow through on. My blog is probably the closest Ive come to that.

*adjusts psychic antenna* Who, me? Stealing thoughts? Certainly not! I’m offended by the suggestion…
Lol! But seriously, I take it as a great comfort when others can say “oh, I feel the same way.” It’s evidence that, even if I’m crazy, I ain’t alone. ;)
I usually manage to journal when I travel, but the longest trip I’ve been on was 3 weeks, and that was a challenge.

Way I see it is just like “no man is an island”, no person is 100% unique. We may never find them, but there are others like everybody out there, somewhere. :)
And besides, being a tad crazy, a little special and just… different, is not always a bad thing. Without the “not-normal” people, the world would be a very boring and backward place dont you think? ;)

Lol! Well, I believe that “normal” is a social construct that has never existed in an actual person. In short, a “normal person” is a fictional beast. He or she is probably taking tea with the gryphon and the mock-turtle as we speak. ;)

The world is made up entirely of weirdos, if only we would recognize the fact. Weirdos with commonalities, certainly, but not a single one conforms, completely, to the idea we have of “normal.”

And yet, there are still those things that make us wonder if we’re alone. And in another sense, I think, everyone IS an island. We can’t step into another mind. Not fully. We can try and communicate our feelings, but we can never know, for certain, that another person really understands/feels the same/calls the same color “blue.” But we can get close, and it’s those moments that I like.

In these discussions I always go back to this short story from one of my favourite authors where a man one day finds that he literally IS the centre of the universe and each living person is living in their own bubble/personal universe and don’t know it – everyone is literally an island, but an island that needs others in it somehow.
..I also go back to this wonderful opening bit from one of my favourite, most under-appreciated asshole comedians:

I can’t watch YouTube at work, but I will try to catch the vid later. In general, though, I’m not much of a fan of asshole comedians. I meet with enough assholery as it is. ;)

I have a friend (and for all I know, perhaps more than one) who really does believe we all inhabit different universes, or that we literally make our own universes and live within them. I understand where she is coming from, but my own beliefs about human isolation aren’t that extreme.

I don’t know how much it’s about isolation – to some it may well be though.
Like so many things I suppose it’s all about perspective.
Me, I like to think of it as though we’re all connected, inexorably and regardless of how much you isolate, some effect of something, somewhere is felt on something or someone, somewhere.
We are all apart whether we like it or not because what you are and what you think and feel and such, no one can ever 100% know and understand – yet even when we hide and live in our own worlds, even a coma patient who will never revive or an autistic kid who responds to nothing, even they have an impact on the world around them even literally doing nothing.

I think we’re into semantics now. In a way, so long as the physical world exists, interactivity is part of our existence. As you say, we impact existence by existing.

Shared nature and shared experience, shared biology etc. make echoes between peoples thoughts and feelings. This allows us to relate to others to some extent.

But we cannot fully enter into another person’s thoughts or feelings. And many internal paths have to be walked alone. I’ve walked some of them. And that is isolation. Sometimes it’s a comforting thing, and sometimes it is an aching thing, but whatever else, it’s a thing.

Hey, I don’t judge – that’s not cool in my view and goes like, against my religion man!
But I firmly believe that great ideas and wisdom can be found all over the place, even amongst crap and nonsense.
So, I keep an open mind and watch the crap all around and every once in a while, a golden nugget of some truth comes along. :D
Too much? sorry, can’t help myself sometimes.

I can agree agree with that philosophy. ^_^ There seems, to me, a lot of muddled thought about (my own mind not excepted), but very little of it is absolutely false.

And I don’t think he is wrong, merely inexact. My arguments with most people have to do with over-simplifications. And this is where my chronic-argumentative-disorder (that’s a thing, right? If it isn’t, then it should be…) and O.C.D. take over.
I know a lot of people from messed up families (as everyone does) and some from what “normal” families pretend to be, but aren’t. A truly stable, supportive family is anything but “normal,” and it tends, in my experience, to create very capable people, who are good at dealing with all kinds of shit hitting fans. They’re rare, and very lucky. And they certainly aren’t covered by the “messed up vs. normal” dichotomy.

But that aside, there are a lot of kinds of messed up families, and this is what, I think, Titus glosses over. What he’s doing (humorously enough) is attacking people from families that have bought into the idea of “normal,” and who pretend to be normal. Whether through ignoring rather than dealing with their own issues (because everyone has issues), or through over-sheltering, or through spoiling, these types of families often create fragile people. Or, at least, people who are fragile until the real world has forced them to get stronger.
And of course, people from overtly messed up families run the gamut, from strong, compassionate, and adaptable people, to people as fragile as glass.

All great points, but I think #2 resonates with me the most, because the principle applies elsewhere, too. Government, for instance. We need leaders and followers and community, but we also need the freedom of individual thought. Otherwise we have chaos or slavery.